The first thing Takuya thought when he next woke up was pain.
His body protested his every attempt to rise fully, and every action that he attempted to take made Takuya hurt more. He didn't even want to open his eyes. His memory from before he lost consciousness was fuzzy and distant, as if it rested on the other side of a broken bridge that he had no way of crossing.
It took far more effort than he would have liked to actually force his eyes into an opened position, and when he did, he immediately wished that he had allowed himself to press on in the bliss of his ignorance. There was too much damn light blaring on his face from all directions, and the colors that existed in his peripheral vision were too bright. He knew that the Digital World was full of vibrance, but he still hadn't expected anything quite like this.
He was stretched out on grass of the palest green that he had ever seen, so radiant that the color bordered on being white. The sky above was dark and littered with stars, but the ground below seemed to shine even without direct contact with the sun. He could hear the swaying of a few trees in the distance, and the melody was almost enough to lull him back into sleep. It seemed to dull his pain and bring him to relaxation, as if he had never known peace until that moment in the grass of the Digital World.
Takuya still pressed on regardless of how much he wanted to sleep though, and he managed to make his way into a sitting position. He rubbed at his eyes and glanced around the area. He could see a trio of other figures nearby, and Takuya realized that he was definitely going to have to investigate if he wanted to find any answers about what had happened. He let out a breath of dissatisfaction before pushing himself to his feet, ignoring the way that his bones seemed to creak and scream with every step.
Saki came into view soon afterwards, and they were slowly rising to their feet alongside Takuya. Saki stretched both arms above their head, and Takuya saw a flicker of pain appear across her face. They watched Takuya for a moment before their gaze dropped to the other figures in the area. Takuya followed their line of sight.
He cringed upon seeing Haroi sprawled out on the grass as well. His eyes were resting confidently at half-mast, and Takuya could tell that Haroi was just as unhappy about being awake as he was. The final outline in sight was Bokomon, and he was holding tightly to Cherubimon's egg. Takuya didn't know how Cherubimon had wound up separating from Nyaromon, but he wasn't sure of much of anything in that moment. His mind was still a hazy blur, and he prayed that one of the other members of his team were able to put the pieces together.
The rest of the team.
Takuya suddenly felt as if he had been punched, and everything came flooding back to him in a brutal cascade of memories. He nearly stumbled with enough force to knock himself from his feet. They had been attacked by Alphamon, and the Royal Knight had hit them with enough force to send them flying. The last thing that Takuya remembered was falling weightlessly through the air in a direction that he couldn't identify.
"Where is everybody?" Takuya yelped. His tongue felt as if it had been wrapped in a thick layer of wool, and the words leaving his lips hardly sounded familiar. He glanced around furiously despite the strange sensation of his body and mind having cut ties with one another, desperate to find any traces of the rest of the group. Haroi, Saki, and Bokomon were there with Cherubimon's egg, but where in the world was everyone else?
"Not here, that's for sure," Saki replied. They glanced around the area once again before going to Bokomon's side and easing the white Digimon to his feet. They gave Cherubimon's egg a brief touch just to make sure that it was still intact. Saki moved to Haroi soon afterwards, and Takuya finally snapped out of his shock for long enough to help Haroi rise as well. The younger boy was far lighter than Takuya had expected him to be, but given how slight Haroi's figure was, he really shouldn't have been surprised.
"What do you think happened to them?" Haroi questioned, his eyes suddenly wide and fearful. He glanced around the area with a transparent and glassy gaze that made it clear to Takuya that he wasn't registering any of the information being presented to him.
"If I had to guess, I'd say that Alphamon's attack split us up," Saki answered. Their tone was far more nonchalant than Takuya's would have been if he had spoken the words. "We'll simply have to look for them. It's clearly been a while since we were last conscious. Look at the sky." Their finger pointed upwards, and Takuya's focus was once again directed to the stars above. Had they really been asleep for long enough for day to transform into night?
Bokomon shook his head. "That isn't a factor in how the sky looks at all. Time doesn't matter here; the sky is always dark," he told Saki. He reached out with one hand after he had secured Cherubimon's egg in the belt at his waist. "Look over there."
At first, Takuya thought that Bokomon was just pointing off into empty space. He was about to ask what the hell Bokomon was talking about when he turned and saw it. His eyes went wide, and he felt the sudden nauseous sensation from before hit him again.
It was the Digital World.
In all honesty, it didn't look like much of a planet. There were large chunks of the land that had simply ripped out, replaced with vast holes of nothing but darkness. They reminded Takuya of what he had passed over when the group first arrived in the Digital World from Earth. Oceans could be seen scattered about, but the bulk of the space was either land or pure darkness.
"It's being torn apart..." Haroi whispered, somehow managing to calm his panic for long enough to be overwhelmed by his own empathy. His eyes appeared as if he was on the verge of tears, and he swallowed dryly to try and hold himself back from crying. "The Royal Knights and Cherubimon... They've left the Digital World as a shell of its former self."
"All of that empty space should be filled," Bokomon said solemnly. "I believe that this started when Cherubimon came to power, but I didn't realize that it was so awful... I thought that everything would go back to normal as soon as we defeated him, but it seems that wasn't the case."
"Instead, all of that power just went back to Lucemon, and now, he's on the verge of being released and given the chance to cause chaos in the Digital World and on Earth," Takuya muttered, his voice taking on a quality of shadow that he hadn't anticipated. His hand instinctively clenched into a fist, and he found himself desperate to find the nearest Royal Knight and simply beat the shit out of them. He somehow doubted that it would be possible for him to get anywhere close to hurting the Royal Knights he was up against, but he still wanted to let the universe that he would have engaged in such a bold act if he was presented with the opportunity.
"We're on one of the Digital Moons right now," Bokomon continued. "If I had to guess, we're on Flavo. It contains the Village of Beginnings. That's where all Digimon go back to after they've been turned into eggs. Unless something specific keeps them grounded to a given location, they come back here by default. I've heard that the land seems to glow yellow, but I didn't believe it until I saw it..."
Takuya looked back down to the ground, and he realized that was why the grass seemed so pale. The light of the moon was making the ground appear radiant, and he could certainly understand why others had said that it glowed. It looked that way to him too.
"Who are you, and what are you doing here?!"
Takuya whirled around upon hearing the voice. The source of the noise was a white Digimon that appeared to be around three-quarters of his height. She had beautiful feathers and wings that were edged with a silvery purple color. Her head came to a point at the back, and it was adorned with a black stripe. Her eyes were a shining purple color, and her beak was a pristine yellow. A plate of silver and gold armor wrapped around the place where her neck met her torso, and the same pattern of armor spread down her legs.
"Swanmon!" Bokomon explained, clearly recognizing the Digimon on sight. He took a small step closer before raising his hands in surrender. "We aren't here to hurt you, I promise. I'm sorry about the sudden intrusion, but we have no intentions of hurting you or the baby Digimon found here."
Swanmon examined the group carefully before allowing her posture to relax. "What are you doing here?" she repeated, far more carefully this time. Her eyes remained sharpened and tense, but it was clear that she was no longer on the verge of lashing out as she had been before.
"We were forced here by an attack from the Digital World," Saki responded, taking a step forward as they spoke. Everything about them seemed relaxed on the surface while hiding the true depth of how they felt. Takuya could tell that they were hiding something from Swanmon, and he was positive that it had something to do with the Royal Knights.
"Yeah. We were trying to stop these awful Digimon who have been stealing data," Haroi explained, jumping into the conversation alongside Saki. Takuya could see that his hands were shaking slightly under the power of Swanmon's penetrating glare, but he was doing his best to remain composed.
"The Royal Knights have returned, and they're trying to bring back Lucemon," Bokomon piped in. "These three are members of the Legendary Warriors, and they're going to save the Digital World from the Royal Knights. We were knocked here when we first tried to stand back to them."
Swanmon's eyes went wide with surprise at the mention of the Legendary Warriors, and she fully allowed herself to relax. "I understand," she said. "The Digital World has been in crisis for quite a while, and the legends did say that the warriors of times long past would return when the Digimon needed them most... Please, follow me."
Swanmon began to fly a moment later, and Takuya glanced over to Saki and Haroi. Saki simply walked forward, more than willing to follow Swanmon's words. Haroi sent Takuya a nervous glance before managing a halfhearted attempt at a shrug. He began to trail after Saki a moment later, and Bokomon followed suit, his hands still curled defensively around Cherubimon's egg despite the lack of imminent danger. Takuya forced a deep, cleansing breath into his lungs before starting to follow them.
The melodic swaying of the trees only grew louder the further away from the landing point that the group got. Takuya found his eyes going wide in awe at the sight of the countless plants that surrounded him on every side. There were odd decorations hanging from the branches alongside leaves, and he couldn't help but wonder how long it had taken Swanmon to set up such a fine display.
Takuya came to the realization that the decorations were far from simply being additions that Swanmon had injected into the area for some extra flavor. In fact, it appeared that the decorations, which were starting to look more like toys for young children, were growing from the trees themselves. Takuya reached up one hand just to test his theory, and when he began to pull on a rattle, he found the tree branch bending in response. There were no wires or strings attached to the toy either. The small objects truly were growing on the tree.
The bright colors of the moon soon became far more prominent than before, and Takuya noticed a particularly large tree positioned at the center of a large clearing. There were multicolored eggs scattered around it, all of them leaning against one another for support. He couldn't even begin to count how many eggs there were, and it looked as if every shade and tint he had ever seen or imagined could be found somewhere in the region. It looked like something out of a children's tale, and yet, he knew that it was real.
"Welcome to the Village of Beginnings," Swanmon declared, spreading one wing out wide. "All Digimon who are deleted or purified throughout the Digital World and its moons are sent here to begin their lives anew. I take care of the baby Digimon, and I have been the caretaker of these lovely youths for countless years."
Takuya nodded along at Swanmon's words, too awestruck by his surroundings to fully register what she was saying. He had heard all of this from Bokomon before the group began to move in the direction of the Village of Beginnings, and he was far too distracted by the village itself to even think about paying Swanmon his full attention.
Haroi seemed to be in much the same condition, and he leaned down to stroke at the surface of a pale turquoise egg. "There are so many of them..." he whispered. The endless expanse of eggs stretched on in every direction, and Takuya could tell by the look in Haroi's eyes that he was feeling the bittersweet tug of his own sympathy once again.
"A lot of eggs arrived here recently from the Continent of Darkness," Swanmon told him, refusing to meet his gaze. "I don't know what could have happened for so many Digimon to need to be reborn at once, but I doubt that it was anything good. Still, as long as I'm able to care for the baby Digimon, what happened in the past isn't important. I know my purpose, and I intend to stick to it no matter what comes my way."
Takuya felt his stomach begin to churn at Swanmon's words, and he was snapped away from his daydream and back into the cruel world known as reality. The Digimon that had come from the Continent of Darkness had been destroyed by Cherubimon's hand. They had once been his soldiers, and they were wiped out in one fell swoop. However, they were getting the chance to start their lives over once again, and this time, Cherubimon wouldn't be around to hurt them. Maybe there was hope for all of them to enjoy peace without consequence in this new lifetime.
"Until you're able to go back to the main area of the Digital World, please make yourselves at home here," Swanmon said, snapping Takuya away from his daze instantly. "The Village of Beginnings is more than happy to invite you inside, and we would be more than happy to allow you to stay here as long as you need to. Please, do all that you must in order to feel safe and at home. Please be careful around the babies though. The last thing we want is to cause them further distress when the world is stressful enough as it is."
Takuya nodded in response to Swanmon's words, and he took a small step away from the Digimon. He wanted to go and find the rest of the group, and even if they were all divided across different regions of the Digital World, he still felt as if he had to do something. He figured that the least he could do was search Flavo and see if he found anyone else. He would know to come back to the Village of Beginnings if he had to talk with Saki, Haroi, or Bokomon.
It appeared that Takuya wasn't the only one with the idea to explore the area though, as Saki also took this as the perfect chance to walk away and look around the moon. Takuya's eyes narrowed in their direction, and he realized that this would be the perfect time for him to speak with them again. Maybe Saki would spare him the hard work of having to explain that he wasn't going to be backing down until after he had pressed an answer out of them.
Takuya and Saki had been walking for about two minutes with Takuya trailing a few yards behind them. Saki stopped moving and spoke, not even bothering to look over their shoulder at Takuya. "Why are you following me? If you want to talk, you should just go on and say it rather than engaging in this game of cat and mouse," they told Takuya, their voice a lazy drawl to hide how attentive and perceptive they truly were beneath the surface.
Takuya took a moment to suck in a deep breath before he forced himself to speak once again. "I just want to learn more about you. It feels like you're so distant from the rest of us, and... I want you to know that it's alright to open up to us. I mean, I told you that before, but you didn't seem to actually want to believe it. I need you to be positive that you understand what I'm trying to get across."
Saki sighed and shook their head. "You're a stubborn one, aren't you?" they commented under their breath. They turned around to face him properly, and Takuya saw just how reflective and glassy their expression truly was i that moment. "I already understand that it's alright for me to reach out. You all seem to be very nice people."
"You're lying," Takuya said. The words were far from being pretty, but they were his gut instinct to say. "Saki, come on. You have to try and talk to us. We'll be far more effective as a team if we know how to bounce off each other. You saw how strong the Royal Knights were when they were working together, and I fully believe that we're capable of the same chemistry if we just put more effort into it. I know that we aren't the sort of people who you would normally open up to. I fully understand that. Still, I don't think you're taking into account the situation that we're in. It isn't normal either."
"I understand that we aren't in a normal situation. Still, there are more things that you must do in order to get to know me beyond simply travel with me to another world. I like to keep my secrets, and I think that you should understand that by now. We all have things that we'd rather keep to ourselves," Saki remarked simply.
"Stop trying to turn this around on me. I know what you're doing, and it isn't going to work," Takuya told them with a heavy frown. "I want you to answer my questions and understand completely that what I'm saying. You need to keep this in mind. We're here for you. We supported one another through our Beast Spirit issues, and even if you don't have those, that doesn't mean that we need to completely block you out. In fact, I'd like to hear more about how you're able to control your Beast Spirit so effortlessly."
Saki examined Takuya with a critical eye, and he was sure that was their attempt to shatter his nerve and make him back down. Still, Takuya knew how to be stubborn, and he was using this skill to his full advantage. He glared at Saki back, but it wasn't at all a threat. Instead, it was simply a promise that he wasn't going to allow them to push him away from the subject. Takuya was sure that he had struck gold, and he was going to make sure that they opened up instead of keeping everything hidden inside.
Saki let out a sigh and shook their head. "You're just as stubborn as Chihiro," they muttered. "When they thought that I was a bad person, nothing could have changed their mind. I believe that they've settled down otherwise now, but I don't think that they were particularly wrong in assuming that I wasn't as incredible as others make me out to be. When they put their mind to something, they know how to get it done, and I can tell that you're exactly the same way."
"Yeah. That's one thing that we definitely have in common," Takuya agreed. "The primary common thread in both situations is that we want to know more about you. Chihiro felt insecure while working with the Fallen Warriors because they didn't know enough about you to make a proper judgement regarding if they were safe or not. I want you to open up and understand that we're fully able to help you through this. You see what I'm trying to say here, right?"
Saki continued to watch Takuya for a minute longer before their gazes met, and Takuya felt a shiver sprint up his spine. "You're very persistent in trying to talk to me about all of this... I don't understand you in the slightest. Getting me to open up doesn't make any sense given what has happened in the past. I actively fought against you and the rest of your team, and yet, you don't seem to care. In fact, you want me to become closer to both you and others in the group."
"You might have been on the opposite side of the war before, but that doesn't matter right now. We're happy with how things are these days," Takuya assured Saki. "If you're worried about any of us having residual feelings of upset, I can promise that your concerns are unfounded. None of us are at all upset with you right now. We understand that Cherubimon's influence completely changed you, and we don't hold that against you. We're not in a normal situation. We're soldiers fighting in a war, and we should at least try to open up to one another. Carrying too much emotional weight by ourselves is a sure way to make everything fall apart."
Saki shook their head, and they slowly eased themselves to the ground. They sat with their knees curled up close to their chest, as if they were trying to shun the rest of the world. It was an oddly vulnerable gesture, but Takuya could tell that there was still something caged about Saki. He couldn't help but wonder if there was anything about Saki that wasn't somehow hidden. They were a large web of details that had yet to be untangled, and he didn't have the slightest idea where he was supposed to start in finding the truth that lived beneath the surface. Unlocking that was something that only Saki would be able to do, and only they could decide when the proper time to open up was.
"Junpei told me that I should try talking to people once in a while," Saki eventually said, but the words were dry and lacked anything resembling life. "I never considered it. There was never much of a reason for me to do that. It would open me up to vulnerability that I wasn't ready to explore yet. Hell, there are still things hidden in the past that I would rather not touch with the long end of a stick. You all are the first people who ever made an effort to actually reach out, but I don't know if I'll be able to bridge that gap quite yet. You making an attempt doesn't mean that I should automatically try to get closer to you in return."
"You don't trust the world at large," Takuya concluded as he slowly settled down on the grass beside them. The trees bowed in a gentle breeze around them, and the rattles hanging from the branches began to sing in response. "But we aren't like the rest of the world. We're all reincarnations of ancient beings, and we're the only ones who could even hope to save the Digital World from ruin. We did it once before, and we can do it again. In order to do that though, we need to understand and trust one another. We all got better at fighting when we opened our hearts to the idea of being around one another. The Beast Spirits merely acted as a catalyst for that connection to be formed completely."
Saki considered their words at first, and they let out another heave of a sigh. "I've always had to control my emotions. Losing it over my Beast Spirit was never an option for me. If you want to survive in a cutthroat world, you have to be able to control yourself. If you lie enough to the world, you can even start to trick yourself. If you say that you're fine for too many years, your mind will start to accept it as the truth as well," they told him carefully.
"You've tricked yourself into controlling your emotions?" Takuya questioned. He wasn't sure if that was what Saki was talking about explicitly, but he figured that it was best to make an attempt to determine what they were saying. Saki was talking in riddles again, but he still wanted to try and get to the bottom of what was bothering them.
Saki nodded slowly. "More or less, yes. You can't change your gut reaction to a given situation, but you can change your perspective. My perspective is that if I don't control something, it can turn against me. If I'm not in control of my emotions, they can destroy my chances of survival. If I'm not in control of a situation, it can flip on a dime and lash out at me instead. Control is key to making it in this world. That's why I did as much as I did as Lyramon. If I wasn't in control of the Fallen Warriors, all wild cards driven to extremes by their own emotions, I feared that the world would betray me."
Takuya was quiet for a moment after that, unsure of how he was meant to respond. Luckily for him, Saki decided to keep talking. "I was forced into survival mode from a young age. My parents died as a result of... Let's just call it a series of suspicious circumstances, because that's the truth of it. They were investigators, and they got too deep into their case. I was only about three or four, but I remember that they were murdered by someone who thought that they had crossed a line," Saki continued.
Takuya's heart immediately felt as if it had shattered. He couldn't even begin to imagine losing one's parents at such a young age. He had wished such a fate on Chihiro's parents many times due to the way that they had treated Chihiro for so many years, but they were far from being the caring figures that he suspected Saki's parents were. The idea that they were murdered only made the situation worse in his eyes. Suddenly, Saki's massive distrust for the world made a striking amount of sense.
Saki let out a bitter bark of a laugh. "My relatives didn't want me. My mother didn't have any relatives, and my father's side of the family was pissed that he married a foreigner. My mother was an immigrant from Vietnam, and his family did not approve in the slightest. They passed me around like I was a broken toy of some sort, always wanting to see who would be willing to take me. It was in and out of various homes for years. It was a constant cycle of people who hated me. Some were passive about their distaste, but others were far more active about it."
Takuya didn't need to hear details to know what Saki was talking about, and he felt as if his throat was starting to close in on itself at the implication. Saki had been abused as a child the same way that Chihiro had. They had been influenced by something that was out of their control in both cases. Chihiro's being intersex had changed their parents' attitude for the worse while Saki's mixed heritage went against them. It was a cruel twist of fate that something that shouldn't have hurt them wound up doing more damage than anything else in their lives.
"The foster system was pretty brutal to deal with too. I was sent there after my extended family decided they were fed up with having to deal with taking care of me. There were a thousand kids with sob stories like mine in the orphanage, and if you didn't want to be chewed up and spit out by the brutality of it all, you had to make a place for yourself in the world. I did that as soon as I had the power to. It didn't matter what I had to do in order to get by. It didn't matter if I resorted to criminal activities to find a way through life. It didn't matter if I was hated or feared by everyone I knew. As long as I was living, that was all that mattered," Saki continued.
"You said that life is the most precious thing a person can be given because it was all that you had growing up," Takuya murmured. "You didn't want to take away anyone else's life because you saw firsthand how hard it could be to scrape by. You were so insistent on making sure that all of us survived the battle with the Royal Knights because this is your primary moral marker."
"Yeah. I knew not to show weakness, so I stopped allowing myself to reveal any hints that I was ever struggling about anything. It was a sure way for me to wind up in trouble. Instead, I maintained complete control over every situation that I was in, and I carried that over to the Digital World. Cherubimon placed me in charge, and I followed his command to remain on top and in control over the Fallen Warriors. He told me what he wanted, and I went along with it. He was the one who dictated who lived and died, and I knew that I would have to stay with him in order to live," Saki said.
"You never would have crossed the line of killing others if not for Cherubimon... He forced you to end Seraphimon's life, but you did have a choice in the matter of other lives," Takuya remarked. "And you've been with us ever since we purified your Spirits, and you haven't stepped out of line to hurt others ever since then. Without Cherubimon breathing down your neck, there simply hasn't been. a reason for you to react with hostility."
"Exactly," Saki confirmed. "There's a lot that I've seen in my years of life, and I understand what is necessary to survive. It's how I can control my Beast Spirit. Practice makes perfect, after all... Still, I would be lying if I said that I didn't find all of you interesting to some degree. You're intriguing people, and the fact that you really want to get to know me... It's not something that I'm used to, but I rather enjoy it. I hope that we'll be able to create a bridge over that gap in the future."
"I'm sure we will," Takuya assured them. "Besides, I'm sure that you've just taken the first step to properly recover. You've opened up to me about your past, and I think that's a really important thing to do. The rest of us are still there for you. I'm sure Junpei will be glad to hear about what you've done today too... You know, after we find a way to get back together with him and the rest of the team."
"We will," Saki told him firmly. "One thing that I can tell about all of you is that you're stubborn in your will to survive. You didn't let me get in your way of pressing on when I was a Fallen Warrior, and you didn't allow Cherubimon to scare you either. Even when you were separated, you did great things, and I trust that you'll be able to find a way back to one another with time."
"Thank you," Takuya murmured, unsure of how else to respond. It was clearly rare for Saki to give out such high praise, and he really didn't know how to respond to it all. He felt a blush rising to his cheeks, but he did his best to banish it when he needed to reply. "We're all really happy to have you as part of the group. I know that it's hard to come into a dynamic like this that seems so clearly established, but... I promise you that you belong here the same way that everyone else does."
Saki let out another laugh as they shook their head. "I really don't understand you of all people, Takuya. You know about everything that has happened between us, and yet, you still want to reach out. I don't think I'll ever stop being mystified by it... Then again, if I had people like you in my life before I came to the Digital World, maybe I wouldn't have wound up quite as screwed up as I feel like I am," they remarked softly.
"That's what I'm here for," Takuya grinned. "I'm bold and brash, but I know how to get the job done." He let out a laugh, though the sound fell short with bitterness when he remembered that Koji was the one who had gotten him into the position that he was in. Hell, every member of the team had been partially responsible, and they weren't even around for him to talk to them about it.
He slowly rose to his feet, and he glanced at the nearby trees as they continued to sway in the wind. "I'm going to see if I can find anybody else," he told Saki. He glanced over his shoulder, and another smile appeared on his face. "If you want to, you can come with me. I'm sure that you'd be able to help me out. With two of us searching, this will go by a lot faster."
Saki regarded him with shock at first, and Takuya could tell that they were once again thinking about how confusing Takuya was to them. Still, they didn't openly comment on such, instead rising to their feet alongside him. Their eyes, previously reflective and glassy, were suddenly honest and open in a way that Takuya hadn't anticipated. "Alright," they answered, and they started to walk away from the place where indents of their bodies could be found in the grass.
Takuya smiled in response, and he couldn't help but feel proud of his progress. He never would have been able to do that without Junpei talking to Saki, and had Izumi not shown him the value of being vulnerable, he wouldn't have come close to breaking down Saki's walls. He had Koji to thank for showing him how to properly use his stubborn demeanor, and the rest of the team's contributions had aided Takuya in growing into a person that he could certainly be proud of. He didn't even want to imagine where he would have been without them.
So he simply chose not to. He walked alongside Saki through grasses that gleamed yellow, a light smile on his face. Even in dark times, he was finding light, and he absolutely loved it.
Haroi had a small baby Digimon in his arms while he held tightly to a small bottle. The Digimon in question was red with three small masses sticking up from the top of its head, and he believed that he had heard Swanmon refer to it as a Punimon. Regardless of the creature's name, Haroi found it to be adorable.
He slowly coaxed the bottle towards Punimon's mouth, and the Digimon accepted it readily before starting to drink the liquid inside. Haroi smiled down at the creature before glancing over to Bokomon. The two had decided to look after the babies while Takuya and Saki wandered away. It had been a silent choice that they came to agree on without ever needing to communicate about it, and yet, Haroi didn't mind at all.
Bokomon was stroking gently at Cherubimon's egg with one hand while he rubbed at the space between another small Digimon's ears with the other. The Digimon in question looked like a darker version of SnowBotamon, and Haroi believed that it was called Botamon. He wasn't sure of how he had come to the conclusion, but something deep in his mind whispered that it was the influence of his Spirits. He was becoming more and more like a Digimon with each passing evolution, and he understood things that he never would have been able to comprehend in his time as being merely a human.
"I miss Neemon," Bokomon suddenly said, and Haroi glanced up from Punimon to watch Bokomon with strained sympathy. Bokomon stopped in stroking at Botamon for a moment, but he continued when the black Digimon glanced up to him with wide, confused eyes.
"Yeah," Haroi murmured. He had never seen Bokomon and Neemon apart in all of their time together. He hadn't been part of the group since the beginning, but he had still been along for most of the ride, and he was positive that Bokomon and Neemon had no reasons to separate under regular circumstances. Even though they were different, they relied on one another for stability and peace in a tempestuous world. The humans and reincarnated Celestial Three were new influences to Bokomon and Neemon's lives, but they had always been constant for each other.
"We've been together for quite a while now, you know," Bokomon continued. "We lived at Evergreen Dawn for ages before the war started, and when the invasion took place... Seraphimon sent us both away. We were all that we had. There wasn't anybody else that we could rely on, and I wish that he was here now."
"He's certainly charming in his own way," Haroi commented with a light laugh, doing what he could to bring levity to the situation. "You're opposites in every sense of the word, but opposites do attract sometimes. I think that you're important to one another. When the world is harsh and uncaring, you at least have one another to rely on, and sometimes... One person is all you really need."
Haroi felt his smile falter, and he realized that the laugh had been just as much for himself as it had been for Bokomon. He missed Mayumi desperately. The group had settled down for the foreseeable future, so there was actually time for him to consider his thoughts about all that had happened, and he was sure that he missed being around her. They hadn't been separated for very long, and yet, he still missed her warming presence.
"I miss Mayumi," Haroi confessed a moment later. "We've been together for as long as I can remember too. Even when the rest of the world hated us and thought of us as nothing more than outcasts, we had each other. We're different, but that's what makes us so good for one another. We bring out the best in each other without even trying simply because we exist in the same space."
"Opposites really do attract, hm?" Bokomon prompted, a sad smile on his face. He picked up Botamon and pressed the small creature to his chest. Botamon nestled up against the space between Bokomon's arms and torso. Within a few seconds, he was asleep, and small snores could be heard leaving his lips.
"Yeah," Haroi repeated before glancing down to the ground. Punimon was getting closer to finishing the bottle in his hand, but Haroi barely even noticed. "I'm glad to have the rest of the group around though. I care about all of them a lot, and I don't even want to think about how upset we would all be without one another to rely on. We've been going through a lot ever since we first arrived in the Digital World, and it's been nice to have so many people to have as a support system."
"I hope that we'll be able to see them again soon," Bokomon sighed. He glanced over to Cherubimon's egg a moment later. "I'm sure that nothing will be able to keep the Ten Legendary Warriors apart, but it's still concerning. Besides, Neemon, Patamon, and Nyaromon have to be with the rest of the team. I simply can't imagine that they've been separated from the others... You know, wherever they are."
"We all need each other," Haroi said confidently, surprising even himself with the firmness of his voice. "I know that I don't show it all that well, but... I really do care about everyone in this group. I'm so used to being alone, and finally realizing that it doesn't have to be like that is a real shock to my system. Still, I'm getting used to it, and I want all of us to be back together again."
"I've never been good with emotions, I have to admit," Bokomon replied. "They're far more Neemon's specialty than mine, though I suppose that he comes by it accidentally rather than on purpose... Still, I can certainly understand the value of being around so many incredible people. I never imagined that the Legendary Warriors from the ancient tales of the Digital World would return, much less that I would wind up so close with them. Life truly is full of surprises."
"I never would have met so many great people without the Digital World... Even if we're going through something really difficult right now, we're making the most of it, and I think that's what matters most," Haroi smiled. "For so many years, I was sure that it would always be just me and Mayumi. Nobody ever seemed interested in being our friend because they didn't like being around us for some reason or another. We only had each other to count on, but... That isn't true anymore. Everybody else is great to spend time with too."
"I was positive that I would spend the rest of my life working in Seraphimon's library, and when that plan fell apart, I didn't know what to do with myself. In a way, I suppose that I still miss Seraphimon, but... Missing Seraphimon doesn't mean that I have to ignore all of the nice people that I've met in his absence," Bokomon told Haroi. "And I do agree that it's nice to spend time with everyone in the team of Legendary Warriors. It's hardly what I expected, but I'm not complaining."
"I've always planned out everything because I thought it would be easier to confront the challenges of life if I had an outline figured out for what I wanted to do next," Haroi admitted. "But I have to say that I'm really liking all of this spontaneity that the Digital World has brought. It's not something that I would have thought that I would fall in love with, but... Maybe it's alright if life is a bit unpredictable sometimes."
"A wild card can be fun when you slip it in with the rest of your hand," Bokomon commented, and his smile read of agreement to Haroi's words. Both the Digimon and boy let out a chuckle in response, and the sound was far more beautiful than anything else Haroi had ever heard.
He could feel something shift within his grasp, and he looked down to see that Punimon had finished drinking. Haroi got to his feet and returned Punimon to the small cradle that he had been resting in before he was removed to enjoy his meal. Haroi glanced down at Punimon as he fell asleep, a fond smile on his face. Meanwhile, Bokomon placed Botamon in his proper location before returning to the side of Cherubimon's egg.
As Haroi and Bokomon settled back in, a gentle cracking sound reached their ears. Their eyes went wide, and their gazes dropped down to where Cherubimon's egg was resting to Bokomon's side. Sure enough, a hairline fracture had formed in the side of the egg, and the crack was slowly beginning to grow. They both knew what this meant without needing a further explanation, and they continued to stare at Cherubimon's egg in silent awe, waiting to see what Digimon was bound to hop free of its remains.
It didn't take long from there for a small Digimon to wriggle its way free of the egg's confines, and Haroi watched in awe as a small brown spherical creature jumped out of what remained of the egg. There were three small horns coming out of its forehead, and its eyes were wide and dark the same way that Poyomon and Tokomon's head been. There was a small fang that appeared off to the side of the Digimon's mouth, and a brown tail could be seen resting behind it. Everything about the small creature screamed innocence, and Haroi could feel his heart melting out of joy that the Digimon existed at all.
Bokomon's eyes went wide with pure fascination, and he curled his hands gently around the base of the brown Digimon's body before whisking it away into the air. "Oh, lovely Conomon!" he cried out before pulling Cherubimon's reincarnation, Conomon, it seemed, closer to his body.
Conomon didn't say anything, but his eyes continued to watch Bokomon with nothing short of pure admiration. It was incredible to see such joy on Bokomon's face, and Haroi could tell just how much this meant to both of them. Conomon didn't seem to understand what was happening in full, but Haroi supposed that he didn't have to. In fact, it was for the best that Conomon didn't remember what had happened in the past. That was Saki's burden to bear in present times, leaving Conomon free of the knowledge that he had been responsible for such atrocities once upon a time.
"He's so sweet," Haroi commented, slowly easing his way towards Conomon. The egg that the brown Digimon had come from disappeared into little more than dust on the wind as Haroi settled down at Bokomon's side, a light smile on his face. He reached out one finger towards Conomon, and he gave the tiny Digimon a gentle pet on the cheek. Conomon leaned into the contact, and Haroi could have sworn that he saw Conomon's eyes light up anew.
"Could you get him some food?" Bokomon questioned when he finally managed to tear his gaze away from Conomon and up to Haroi. The boy nodded in response and jumped to his feet as Bokomon continued to speak. "I suppose that some lingering power still exists even in reincarnation for the Celestial Three... No other young Digimon evolves quite this quickly, though I guess that is to be expected given who they once were."
Haroi realized how right Bokomon was when he cast his mind back to Punimon. The small red Digimon hadn't shown any signs of evolution despite being fed, and yet, that was all it had taken for both Poyomon and SnowBotamon to reach their second stages of life. He hoped that perhaps Conomon would be the same so that they would actually be able to communicate with Cherubimon's new incarnation. Baby Digimon didn't seem to possess the power to speak, so all they could do was wait until the innocence of being newly born gave way to further age and experience.
Haroi retrieved a bottle before handing it over to Bokomon. He sat down as he watched Bokomon feed Conomon a small amount of liquid, and a smile appeared on his face as he watched Conomon greedily swallow it all. As soon as the bottle had been finished, Bokomon set it off to the side, and he watched as a gentle glow began to surround Conomon's body.
When the light faded, another brown Digimon was in his place. His body was somewhat floaty and seemed to lack substance, but he had the same head with three notable spikes as before. A pair of small ears rested on either side of his head, and his eyes were just as innocent as they always had been. In a way, Haroi almost found it impossible to believe that this creature had once been Cherubimon. This young Digimon, an innocent child placed before the horrors of the world, had been responsible for countless crimes in his previous life.
Damn it, Haroi wasn't going to let Lucemon get away with this.
"Kokomon is your name now!" Bokomon declared, and he sounded like a proud father in a strange way. He held up Kokomon to the sky and watched as the young Digimon giggled in response. The laugh was somewhat shy and halfhearted, as if Kokomon didn't understand fully why he was so deserving of such attention. Still, he didn't object, and it didn't take long for him to settle back in once Bokomon pulled him close again.
"The rebirth process of the Digital World truly is incredible," Haroi said softly, once again reaching out a gentle hand towards Kokomon. At first, the young Digimon shied away from his touch, but he ultimately nuzzled Haroi's fingertips when he realized that the teenaged boy was no threat. Kokomon seemed oddly happy as he curled himself against Haroi's hand, and once again, Haroi thought about how strange the Digital World was. Kokomon had, once upon a time, been involved with awful things, but he was an entirely different creature thanks to the process of reincarnation that the Digital World touted.
"I'm sure that everyone else in this group will be more than happy to hear about how he hatched!" Bokomon declared happily, and Haroi had to admit once again that the white Digimon's nature certainly reminded him of a father. In a way, that was what Bokomon had become to the young Digimon. Seraphimon had been his fatherly figure, but when the world began to fall apart, the roles were reversed. In a strange way, Bokomon's attitude reminded Haroi of his stepfather and Mayumi's birth father. He could tell that the young reincarnations of the Celestial Three would grow up to be fine Digimon as long as they had the influence of a creature as kind as Bokomon had proven himself to be.
"We should tell Takuya and Saki. I'm sure that they're around here somewhere," Haroi remarked, slowly rising to his feet. He glanced around the immediate area but saw no sign of the Warriors of Fire or Steel. He was still sure that they couldn't have gone too far, but he wasn't sure of how willing he was to leave Bokomon and Kokomon alone so soon. Perhaps he was simply growing attached to Kokomon already. Regardless of the explanation, Haroi had made up his mind, and he was sure that he wasn't going to leave if he could help it.
"It seems that your egg has hatched."
Haroi turned upon hearing Swanmon's voice, and he responded with a nod and a smile. "Yeah. He's already starting to grow," he replied. From beside him, Bokomon rose to his feet, still cradling Kokomon close to his chest.
"Can I hold him for a moment?" Swanmon questioned, her voice soothing and delicate. When Bokomon nodded, she extended her feathery wings in his direction before accepting Kokomon into her grasp. Despite the change of scenery, Kokomon felt right at home beside her, and Haroi was sure that he could see the small Digimon smiling out of pure joy.
Haroi listened to the whispering of the wind from every direction, and he felt the kiss of the breeze upon his cheeks. This felt like pure bliss, if he was being honest. He would have been content to stay in the Village of Beginnings forever to look after the baby Digimon and the accompanying eggs. He wanted to nurture them until they were able to grow and flourish on their own. Perhaps it was his protective instinct coming to light, or maybe it was simply because of the natural peace that the Village of Beginnings seemed to possess. No matter the explanation, Haroi knew that he was happy there, and he wished that he had the ability to remain in the lovely area forever.
Still, Haroi was aware of his duties. He had to find a way to defeat the Royal Knights alongside the rest of the Legendary Warriors. They were meant to defend the Digital World, and defeating the five Royal Knights before they could unlock the seal Lucemon was trapped behind had to be their first priority. No matter how much Haroi wanted to stay in the Village of Beginnings, he understood that he had other issues to attend to first. Countless Digimon were relying on him, and he refused to let them down.
In a way, the Digimon in the Village of Beginnings needed his assistance as well. They wouldn't be able to grow up happy and healthy if the Digital World was poisoned by the influence of the Royal Knights or Lucemon. Haroi could only keep them safe by fighting, and he was more determined than ever to defeat the Royal Knights. The young Digimon of Flavo were children, and he wanted nothing more than to protect them from the potential horrors of the world.
That was when the ground began to shake.
Haroi was snapped out of his resolved confidence as soon as he felt the quaking from below, and his eyes went wide in shock. He nearly fell to his knees, but he managed to throw out one hand towards a nearby tree trunk to ensure he didn't entirely collapse. Bokomon wrapped an arm around Haroi's leg to keep from falling over as well, and Haroi's heart began to increase its steady beating rhythm.
He glanced down at the grass below, and he saw the yellow glow of Flavo begin to falter for a brief moment. He could have sworn that he saw the flickering of Fractal Code for a brief second before it retreated back into the pale grasses of the moon. Haroi could have sworn that his heart stopped for a fraction of a moment as he realized who was responsible for the sudden trembling.
"The Royal Knights are here!" Bokomon cried out, stealing the words straight from Haroi's lips. "Where are Takuya and Saki?! We need to protect the young Digimon!" He managed to force himself away from Haroi's body as the shaking came to a stop. Haroi still felt rattled down to his very core, and he pressed one hand against his chest as he trailed after Bokomon in the direction they assumed Takuya and Saki had disappeared in.
"Please look after Kokomon for us until we can end this fight!" Haroi called over his shoulder to Swanmon. He wished that he could have engaged in other formalities, but there were time constraints that kept him from being able to convey how grateful he truly was for Swanmon's hospitality. He hoped that he would have the chance to speak with her again after the fight was over.
"Alright!" Swanmon exclaimed, but Haroi could hear the way that her voice threatened to crack beneath the pressure of the situation. She clearly wasn't an experienced fighter, likely because nobody ever anticipated that the Village of Beginnings would be attacked in the first place. Only the Royal Knights were heartless enough to want to lash out at the young Digimon, it seemed, and Swanmon was cruelly unprepared to face them on any level of combat.
"I suppose that their moral of not killing children doesn't apply to Digimon," Haroi murmured, making the words just loud enough for Bokomon to hear. "Perhaps they believe that since Digimon can be reborn, it doesn't matter what they do to them in this life... No matter what their reasons are, they are nothing short of despicable for believing that they can get away with harming Digimon so casually without acknowledging the consequences."
Bokomon sighed and shook his head at Haroi's conclusion. "I don't understand how they can claim to possess anything resembling morality," he announced confidently. "They know the chaos that will be visited upon this world if Lucemon returns, and yet, they can't even bring themselves to consider caring. All that matters is their loyalty to their liege."
"Hey! Haroi! Bokomon!"
Haroi stopped running when he heard Takuya's voice, and he could see both the Warrior of Fire and Saki sprinting towards him with as much speed as they could muster. Determination was stitched firmly into both of their faces, and Haroi was sure that they had come to the same conclusions that he and Bokomon had regarding the arrival of the Royal Knights.
"They have to be nearby," Saki said quickly as they slid to a stop alongside Haroi and Bokomon. Takuya did the same a moment later, though the motion was far less effortless for him due to how quickly he had been moving without considering the potential downsides to his actions. It was just like Takuya to do something so bold and reckless, and Haroi was sure that he would have smiled at it had they not been in such a critical and uncertain position.
"We'll move faster if we Spirit Evolve," Haroi pointed out. His gaze dropped to Bokomon a moment later. "You should go back to the Village of Beginnings and make sure that everyone is evacuated before anything bad can happen to the baby Digimon. We need to be positive that all of the Digimon are taken as far away from here as possible so that nobody gets hurt."
Bokomon nodded his agreement, and he glanced over the three Legendary Warriors with concern in his eyes. "Please be careful," he said softly before pivoting on his heel and dashing away. He disappeared from view a few moments later, but Haroi found himself watching the spot where Bokomon had stood prior to the moment where he vanished from sight for far longer than he probably should have.
Takuya had his D-Tector out a moment later, and all it took was him pressing down on the activation button for his intentions to be made perfectly clear. Three rings of Fractal Code appeared around his fingers, and they gleamed menacingly in the distant starlight. The combined illumination of the Fractal Code at his hand and the light from Flavo below cast an ominous shadow across Takuya's face that told a story of endless stubbornness and bold determination. Takuya wasn't going to be giving in no matter what happened, and Haroi was sure that such an assumption belonged to both himself and Saki as well.
Haroi reached for his D-Tector the same time that Saki did, and they followed Takuya's lead in focusing in on the activation button. As Fractal Code appeared around their fingers, their resolve grew stronger, and the weight of unfulfilled duties seemed to hang in the air as if it were physical rather than merely emotional. They all understood what they had to do, and they weren't about to let the Royal Knights get in their way.
Fractal Code surrounded the three Legendary Warriors as they made their choice. The Royal Knight that had dared to step onto Flavo's surface would not be surviving until the day's end, and their death would take place at the hands of the Warriors of Fire, Steel, and Cosmos.
Oh man! We're really getting into this now!
The way that the remainder of this story is outlined puts us on a course to have a lot of combat in the chapters to come. In fact, most of act five (otherwise known as the final five chapters) consists of battle sequences, leaving little room for character development. I've decided to throw in a bunch of character-based content throughout act four to spice things up as a result.
Takuya's conversation with Saki was my favorite part to write out of this chapter. They were both the leaders of their respective teams at one point or another, and while they are different, they can still come together to understand one another. Plus, this is actually the official explanation as to what happened to Saki to make them the way that they are. This was the backstory dump that took the longest to get to, but I feel like it works since we're finally coming full circle by exposing the most mysterious of the Legendary Warriors. Saki truly is a joy to write, and I love their dynamic with Takuya (and Junpei, as a matter of fact) far more than I expected to.
Next there was Haroi's conversation with Bokomon. The primary parallel that you can draw between them is the way that they're the more reserved out of the 'opposites attract' duos that they both belong to (with the other parties being Mayumi and Neemon). I always felt like they had the potential for a lovely dynamic, so when the time came to round off character development, I practically made a beeline towards them to make sure that they talked about life and such. Throwing in the Conomon/Kokomon bit only made their conversation better in my opinion.
Overall, I really do think that this chapter speaks for itself. We're finally learning about the three moons of the Digital World. Their names are Flavo, Rubrum, and Caeruleum (yellow, red, and blue respectively). Obviously, we learned about Flavo in this chapter, but rest assured when I say that the other moons will be explored with time. For now though, you got to hear all about the Village of Beginnings and its guardian, Swanmon. I'd say it all worked out.
Anyways, that should be about it from me. Next week, we'll have another battle scene between Takuya, Saki, Haroi, and the Royal Knight who attacked Flavo. Until then, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Feedback is always appreciated. Have a nice day, everyone!
-Digital